Nightscale
by darling771234
Summary: As a baby, Hiccup was stolen away in place of his mother and brought to the queen of a nearby nest. With her magic she changes his physical form into that of a dragon for him to have a "pure life"; away from humanity. Years later while visiting Berk with his guardian, a Nightscale he calls Toothless, they are attacked and separated leaving Toothless captured and Hiccup alone...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"The queen wishes to see you." A voice demanded making the Nightscale it addressed startle out of a rather enjoyable nap.

The night it had just endured had been traumatic, with many more lives lost than usual during the raid. Humans were easy enough to deal with but taking their resources and trying to survive at the same time could prove difficult even for the genetically gifted. This particular group of humans had been troubling for some time.

Unlike others in the area they had stayed put, despite their food source being constantly plundered and the Nightscale couldn't help but wonder why. He figured that, either stubbornness or downright stupidity, it didn't matter so much why, so long as they kept the hive healthy and the Queen happy. Speaking of which.

"Can I ask why she has requested me?" He asked the voice. It belonged to a plump looking dragon called a Gravelgut, she flittered her wings about in nervousness as the Nightscale stretched out his wings.

"Something about the most recent raid I think." She replied with a sharper tone. She didn't enjoy being questioned about things she didn't know. "It's urgent." She hurried when the Nightscale stared longingly back to his charred piece of stone.

"Fine." He sighed padding forwards to the nearest of the nests plummeting edges. He spread his wings and confidently let them catch the upwards draft to start the flight off with a glide. The Gravelgut took off after him with not nearly as much grace but she still managed to catch up to him in a short amount of time.

"Hurry now." She rushed, "the queen is expecting you as soon as possible." The Nightscale rolled his eyes sarcastically but quickened his pace ever so slightly so as not to offend the other. He knew it wasn't her fault. The queen could be a handful at the best of times.

He wondered what this was all about. Was she not satisfied with what she had gotten this raid? He had thought that maybe she would be understanding with the amount of casualties this time around but perhaps that wasn't the case. He sighed, silently begging to whoever it was that would listen, to make the worst punishment he could get an extra shift on scouting and raids. That he could handle. A bitten off wing or a tailfin? That was something he couldn't.

He'd have to tread lightly around this one.

It wasn't long after this thought that the Gravelgut came to a halt in front of a glowing pit of lava. She let herself fall slightly to a ledge not so far from the pit where a small pack of dragons was huddled around something small and covered in human items. Curiously the Nightscale curled his head sideways trying to get a better look at the thing. What was it?

"Nightscale." He jumped.

"My queen." He addressed. While he was focused on the thing she had emerged from the pit - smouldering blobs of molten rock dripping from the horns covering her back.

"I'm thankful for you coming so quickly though the crowd of others I have not summoned is something I am not as thankful for." She raised her voice to a higher octave and the dragons scattered.

The Nightscale landed thankfully and began to inspect the object. He sniffed at it curiously.

It was some kind of soft thing wrapped up in a furred skin. It seemed to be a canine of some sort from the smell. Perhaps a wolf.

The Nightscale prodded his nose harder into the thing trying to see what it was and jolted backwards when it moved. The skin fell away at the wrapped up seam revealing a sweet-smelling, pink, human hatchling.

"My queen?" The Nightscale questioned uncertainly.

The queen sighed, irritation clear in her voice. "An idiot of a twin-head brought it to me as a prize. We can't give it back but we cannot eat it so I'm in a bind as to what to do."

"And... If I'm so bold as to ask, my queen. Why do you need me?" The Nightscale asked nosing the human hatching once more. He stared up at him with brilliant green eyes; not an ounce of fear in them. It was unnerving.

"I have two options." She stated. "Kill it." The Nightscale grimaced inwardly, "or allow it a chance at a pure life."

"How do you mean a pure life?" He brought his head up to meet the queens eyes.

"There is more to this world than meets the eye my Nightscale. I have power in me that would allow me to change the form this one takes. He would be part of our nest and we shall take care of him. Allow him to be one of us. A pure entity like us instead of a filthy, murderous human."

The Nightscale swallowed and looked back to the human. It was waving it's stubby little arms around trying to reach for his nose again. He lent down and let it grasp him with it's pathetically helpless digits. It was hard to believe something as sweet as this could be described as murderous.

"Would he survive my queen?" He asked softly.

"That is why I am having trouble deciding. It is not guaranteed that he has the strength needed in his body to be able to take the change properly. If he survives he may be disfigured and mutated. He may even revert one day. But I should hope he is strong enough."

"Where will he stay? If he is changed now it is past hatchling season. He would have no others like him around."

"He will stay with you." The queen insisted. "you tire of being alone I understand that. With this little one you may not have to be so alone."

"You're asking me to be a guardian my queen?" The Nightscale said timidly not daring to take his head away from the gentle pats the hatching was giving him.

"Yes. Do you accept?"

He thought for a moment. "If I say yes, my queen, will you not hesitate to change him now?"

"Do you accept?" The Queen asked again, with a little more force.

A moment of silence passed. The Nightscale thought to himself. He looked to the hatchling with the big green eyes.

"I accept."

With that the hatchling began to scream and the Nightscale lept back in surprise.

The hatchling was morphing and changing before his very eyes. He whined in pity as the queen worked her magic over the young thing.

The screaming became louder getting more and more dragon like as the body stretched and contorted into a mutilated halfling. Neither man nor dragon.

The Nightscale had to look away. He whined timidly at the horrific screams wishing he could do something himself to ease the little one's pain.

It continued. Screams getting louder and louder, more horrific and dragon like until finally they stopped. The queen panted looking pleased with her work. The Nightscale nervously turned around. He sighed in relief. No mutilation had befallen the pup.

It squeaked out a scared little shrek. Nervous around it's sudden lack of sight. The Nightscale breathed out a coo to the little one trying to comfort it somehow.

Being the last of his kind he didn't know much but he did know that Nightscales were hatched with their eyes closed. It took over a human month for them to see and hear properly.

The Little one hiccuped out a reply. Scared and nervous but less so now that it felt the Nightscales head nuzzling into his.

"Take care of him." The queen said softly. The spell had cost her more energy than she had bargained for. "It took a lot to get him like that. I won't have him coming out wrong."

"I'll do my best, my queen." The Nightscale said softly. Most of his attention now on the hatchling who had somehow gotten the hiccups from it's recent scare.

The Nightscale laughed out a gentle purr and nipped at the back of his neck to make sure the scruff was safe enough to carry him by.

The queen sighed and sunk back into the depths of her rancid magma pit. Once she was gone the Nightscale hooked his sheathed gums around the pups scruff and took off back to his stone.

It had only been mere moments but he already knew he would give his own life to protect his pup.

His little hiccup.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Nightscale, or Toothless as Hiccup had come to call him, sat perched smugly on top of a steep cliff. He looked down at the other Nightscale and smirked.

"No fair!" Hiccup yelled from his place on the ground.

They had been playing prior to this; Hiccup having managed to distract Toothless out of his flying lessons for at least one decent game of hide and seek.

"If you could fly up here you could come and tag me." Toothless teased the other.

"But you know I can't do that." The younger wined.

"Exactly. But if you'd have payed attention you might be able to." Toothless watched the other huff childishly.

Content with his win, he stretched out his wings and pushed himself off into a glide. Game forgotten for now. The second he was on the ground he gripped Hiccup by the scruff of his neck and hoisted him up into the air.

Though bigger than he had been; Hiccup was a runt. Small in stature and in weight making him look much younger than he was. He'd seen 15 winter's since he had been given to Toothless but didn't look much older than 6. Of course Toothless exploited this to his full advantage and still pulled the younger along by his scruff whenever able. This was one of those times.

As swiftly as he had gotten down, Toothless plopped down onto his cliff face perch and released Hiccup from his jaws.

The younger Nightscale shook his head back and forth in irritation at being treated like a hatchling. "You know I hate when you do that!"

Toothless chuckled and took off once more, leaving the other on the ledge.

"Show me how you glide." Hiccup rolled his eyes at him. A rather bad habit he had picked up from the other. "Come on, just once more and then we can go home."

Hiccup sighed and moved to a ready gliding stance. He took a few cautious steps back before rushing forward and launching himself off the cliff.

"There we go!" Toothless called encouragingly as Hiccup caught the updraft with a good precision. The older dragon moved to fly next to him. "Try angling your tail fins up a little more."

Hiccup did as he was told, a tiny sliver of his tongue sticking out in concentration.

"Good." Toothless cooed appreciatively. "You think you can flap them enough to get you over the cliff?" He asked.

Hiccup glanced to his wings and nodded determinedly.

"Alright. I'll get under you in case you miss the updraft."

Doing as he had said he would. Toothless watched Hiccup cautiously from a lower angle.

Most common dragons tended to learn how to fly properly the day they are hatched but hiccup was an exception to this rule. Toothless thought that maybe it was something to do with the Queen's magic. His wings weren't as strong as they should be and so he tended to have a hard time flying over long distances. It was due to this that the older Nightscale had come up with the idea of daily flying lessons in hopes of upping the others stamina.

It seemed to be working for the most part. It wasn't as obvious at first but as Hiccup's confidence grew Toothless noticed him beginning to push himself further and further every time they went out. Even if he acted like he didn't care or didn't want to.

Toothless knew the not caring part was all an act to try and make it seem like he wasn't as self-conscious about it as he really was. It was because of this confidence issue that Toothless tended to lead them away from the hive for these lessons. The island they were on was inhabited by humans but if they kept to one side of the Forest then they didn't have too much to worry about.

The older Nightscale pulled up to drift beside the younger as he skillfully made it up over the cliff and into the open sky.

"You're getting better." He complimented.

"Yeah but you still have to put me somewhere high to start me off." Hiccup stated putting his achievement down.

"Hey, getting up from the ground is a hard feat. You'll get it. We just have to build your wing strength up first." Toothless snorted as he watched Hiccup roll his eyes and lose his balance at the same time. "One thing at a time. You can sass me later." He instructed but Hiccup wasn't listening anymore.

"What's that?" He asked, eyes pointing to a thin stream of smoke emanating from a clearing in the trees.

Toothless stuck his nose to the wind. It wasn't dragon fire; there was no smell of lighted gas anywhere. It must be artificial human fire. But it didn't smell like the hateful roaring found in the big bowls used to illuminate the sky. It smelt of careful precision and control. It was strange. "I don't know." Toothless admitted pulling in the opposite direction. He didn't trust it, "let's leave it alone."

Hiccup paused for a moment ignoring Toothless's command. He began to fly toward it.

"Hiccup? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get a better look." Toothless bristled at this.

"No!" He growled forcefully. He caught up to the younger with ease and nipped at his ears insistently scared to do anything more In case the other lost focus and fell. Hiccup payed no attention and instead angled himself downward to land.

"Hiccup this isn't a good idea!" Toothless called after the younger. He growled to himself when Hiccup didn't so much as slow down and reluctantly followed.

The forest itself was dense and had a smoky pine smell to it. A large amount of leafy plants covered the floor which allowed for a lot of camouflage. Toothless silently thanked whatever god was out there that Hiccup was a runt. If all else failed and they were attacked at least he would be able to hide.

Toothless caught up with Hiccup and forced his torso down with a paw. They'd have to stay close to the ground if they even wanted a chance at not being seen. The younger whined softly but obeyed Toothless's silent command.

Together they stalked towards the artificial fire.

The place was silent when they got close enough to see. It was too quiet if you asked Toothless. And too deserted. Humans didn't like to leave fire alone for too long in case it spread. This was unnatural and suspicious. But of course, like anything else unnatural and suspicious, this intrigued Hiccup. Curious by nature, the little Nightscale had built up a reputation for being an investigator. It cause him all kinds of trouble really but when it really came down to it, it was obvious he couldn't help himself.

The younger had never had any involvement with humans. He'd never even seen one. The only knowledge he had about them was what he had been told.

Great tales of brave and vicious battles fought against them. They captivated Hiccup just like many of his nest mates. He knew they were dangerous but at the same time he was so compelled to learn more.

Sniffing the air softly, he slowly crept forward.

"Hiccup!" Toothless hissed, ears pricked and listening for any kind of disturbance. "You seen it now let's go!"

"Look at this!" Hiccup gasped, completely ignoring Toothless's command.

His eyes widened in wonder. The temporary nest, for that was the only way to describe it, was incredible. Human objects littered the place in piles like little treasures. Dragons were known hoarders so it wasn't unusual for him to see objects arranged like this. The only unusual part was that they had been left unguarded.

He giggled a little seeing the fire.

Humans had placed stones around it in a circle to keep it contained. "How clever." He commented, this must be why they're so confident in leaving it be.

"Yes. Yes. Very clever, now come on Hiccup!" Toothless insisted.

"How can you be so discrediting of all this?!" Hiccup said investigating a pile of twigs near the fire circle. They all seemed dry and flammable. Did humans want to add these to the fire? Why? It was easy enough to make more. They could just make another when this one burnt out. Unless humans couldn't make fire as easily as dragons could? But why not?

"I'll credit them when we get out of here still alive!" Retorted Toothless through gritted teeth. Hiccup rolled his eyes.

He sniffed the wood softly. It was pine. That meant the fire would burn through quickly if they didn't come back and refuel it. Hiccup sneezed; the dust coming off the wood irritating him. Someone had cut clean through it with something rigid. Maybe a claw? That was what had caused the dust.

"Hiccup! Come on! Let's go before they find us messing around with their stuff."

"Just a few more minutes." Hiccup begged already investigating a new pile.

It was made up of mainly animal furs wrapped in a spiral. Hiccup batted one of them with a paw and it came undone easily enough; folding out into a flat oval.

Hiccup wondered what the need of them was? Maybe for the cold? He could understand that. Nights were cold without the sun and a pile of nest mates to cuddle with. Maybe that was the reason for the fire as well?

He sniffed the skin cautiously before rubbing his cheek against the soft, fluffy fur. It felt great! So relaxing, and before he knew it he was rolling over onto it and stretching out. All guard for the situation having been completely forgotten.

Toothless sighed in irritation, "you're an idiot!" He growled padding forward and nipping at the others ears to get him to roll back over.

"Come on Toothless! Just try it!" Hiccup laughed, rolling back over and moving further up the fur. Toothless growled.

"No! We've spent long enough here! We're leaving." He snarled tugging on Hiccup's ear harshly. Hiccup whined and pulled back sharply.

"No!" He huffed stomping his paws in protest. "Just try rolling about on this one time and we'll leave."

Toothless huffed. He took a deep breath in in steady his patience. "You promise?"

"I promise!" Hiccup replied. His tail wagged back and forth slightly in happiness.

Toothless reluctantly trotted over to the fur, shoving the other out of his way. Without another word he rolled over and wriggled about on the soft pelt; stretching himself out on his back until he felt something (a bone maybe) click into place and broke out into a puddle of purrs. Okay. He admits it. This felt awesome!

"It's good right!" Hiccup tried hopefully.

Toothless sighed contently and rolled back around to his stomach. "Yes alright, it's pretty - HICCUP!"

The second he righted himself a glint caught his eye from a nearby bush. Without a second thought he pounced over to the younger Nightscale; shoving him out of the way the second a trap launched itself.

He let out a pained wheeze as his body was tangled between a weighted net.

"Toothless!" Hiccup squeaked in fright sprinting over to him in order to help.

"NO!" Toothless roared at him finally seeing how this had all been a trap! Humans were already appearing from their hiding places, smeared in dirt and leaves in order to mask their scent.

"HICCUP! RUN!" He lashed out as much as he could, eventually managing to dig his claws into flesh. It seemed to do the trick as with a sharp yelp Hiccup took off into the wilderness, blood trailing after him. The humans let him go, more interested in their larger more expensive prize.

They laughed and patted each other on the back in smug congratulations.

Toothless snarled at any who dared get too close but soon he was overwhelmed by the amount of hands touching him. Prodding and poking. He swallowed expecting them to kill him and took a breath.

At least Hiccup was safe. He couldn't fly too well but he'd find a way to get back to the nest. He was smart. He'd figure something out. Toothless was sure of it.

Repressing a whimper, he tried not to let his fear show when the humans began to drag him in the opposite direction Hiccup had ran. Probably towards their nest. They would kill him there.

I'm sorry Hiccup. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you for longer. You'll make it. Be smart. Be safe.

Make me proud.

…..

Hiccup ran!

He ran for his life, unable to shake the sheer panic destroying his common sense. His breath came in short shaky bursts leaving him panting but unable to stop moving.

Adrenaline pulsed through his body pushing him on and on through the dense woodland. Over trees and through tight spaces that scraped textured bark and spiny stones against his wings and sensitive underbelly. It hurt but he couldn't stop. He was certain someone/something was going to jump out at him the second he let his guard down.

If only he could fly! He could get off the island and go get help from the nest. Maybe if he kept running in this direction he'd eventually get to a cliff or something where he could take off? Just to give him a head start and… too late.

Hiccup let out a squawk of terror as he suddenly tripped up. Dragons like him weren't built to be on the ground and so running for too long on rough rolling ground was bound to end in disaster. And in disaster it did. The little Nightscale spun out of control during the fall and somehow propelled himself to the edge of a crumbling cliff.

He squealed in desperation as the very top of the ledge crumbled under his weight, causing him to fall, no matter how much he clawed at the walls to stop himself.

A harsh landing insured. Hiccup whimpered pitifully at the amount of pain he was in. The sand underneath him now, that usually would have cushioned his fall, was wet from the previous night's storm, making it flat and hard.

Pebbles pitter-pattered their way over his dark scales as they also lost their grip on the ledge and came tumbling down on top of him. Hiccup whined and began to limp away from his crash site.

The adrenaline was beginning to wear off now making his injuries that little bit more prominent.

The wing on his right side throbbed painfully and dragged down on the ground whenever he tried to move. It was probably dislocated from the fall. Thankfully it didn't look as though anything had torn through the membrane, so it wasn't like it was unfixable. The other problem however was a bit more prominent and would take longer to heal.

A large bleeding wound was gouged into his left back leg. Three scratches had torn straight through his tough hide and into the flesh underneath.

Hiccup knew it was Toothless's claws that had done it and, if he was honest, he was glad the other had hurt him in this way. If he hadn't, Hiccup knew he wouldn't have bolted and wouldn't have gotten away.

Toothless. Hiccup whined painfully thinking about him. It was all his fault! If he had just listened and left the nest alone they would still be together! Toothless would still be alive!

His guardian had died trying to protect him all because of his curiosity.

Hiccup snarled at himself and began to sob. He was so selfish! Why couldn't he have just listened for once in his life?!

Droplets of water began to fall from the sky but Hiccup ignored it. It was fine! This is what he deserved! He deserved to be out alone in the rain! Cold and in pain!

Hiccup sniffled. A loud clap of thunder startled him making him yelp in fright. He quickly crouched, making himself look smaller.

Thunder wasn't good. Thunder meant lightning.

Hiccup swallowed his guilt for the moment. He had to find shelter close enough so that he didn't aggravate his injuries.

Think Hiccup think!

He glanced to his right. "It's just ocean." He said aloud finally assessing where he had fallen. It was some kind of cove.

He glanced to his left. That way was just high intimidating cliffs. Cliffs were better. He thought. He couldn't swim very well, his body not being built for it but he could climb if he had to.

Hiccup whimpered and began to drag himself along the beach. He left a trail of blood along the sand but as he neared a closing cliff wall a secluded cave came into view. It was a little way up but he would be alright. He ran most of the way here, he could survive a little rock climbing.

It took him a while of stopping and starting up the slippery slope of cliff wall but eventually Hiccup made it into the cave.

It went back a long way and the stone was smooth and sturdy. He smiled softly. Maybe this was the god's way of taking pity on him?

Hiccup whimpered at the pain on both sides of his body and collapsed against the back wall of the cave. He could see the raging ocean outside from his little cubby hole of a nest and flattened his ears against his head.

"If anyone's listening," he whispered, "please let me get through this! Please! Send help and let Toothless be okay! Please!" He whimpered talking to himself now more than anything.

He sighed a shaky breath and let himself drift away from reality. It was cold without Toothless but he would manage.

He had to.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Today dragon training is going to be a little different." Gobber, a rounder Viking with a distinct accent and a couple limbs missing, started off. He began to crank a large lever in a circle opening up two, very heavy looking, metal doors.

Astrid glanced at the rest of her classmates, just to check that they were ready to back her up should anyone get injured.

Course a little injury was always acceptable. Dragon training was never fun unless you got a couple scars out of it. Nothing too permanent though; she glanced at her teacher's missing hand and leg and quickly shook herself out of that ratiocination.

There was Ruffnut and Tuffnut, the twins, both with ready stances and matching grins. One had an axe the other a mace, as per usual. Astrid sighed knowing she'd have to keep an eye on the two.

Then there was Fishlegs, a nice enough guy with a heart of gold and dragon knowledge that rivaled Gobber's. Astrid smiled knowing he would probably do okay. He had enough knowledge to be able to know what to stay clear of.

And finally there was Snotlout. A fairly greasy looking dude with an unhealthy obsession in impressing her/ attempting to court her. Focus on the 'attempting'. She mentally gagged. Of course he had chosen to take the space closest to her, desperate to be constantly present. 'Like a Leach,' she thought to herself.

He was the Chief's nephew so they had clashed for a little while at first when Stoick had chosen her over him to be the new heir of Berk. Snotlout's father had been more upset about it at first than Snotlout had. Calling Stoick a betrayer of blood. Astrid rolled her eyes remembering how Snotlout had so obviously copied his father's reaction in hopes of gaining his attention.

Stock had shut them both down very quickly in the end; a shout of 'Snotlout will never be ready for this kind of responsibility' having done the trick. Astrid remembered feeling proud that day.

But back to the present. The wooden doors were fully open casting light into the dim pen.

Her classmates gasped in varying levels of shock and excitement. Inside the hollowed stone was a completely coal black dragon, tied down and harmless by the mouth, legs and wings. Heavy chains linked everything back to a metal hook preventing it from escaping.

Astrid lowered her Axe in awe. She'd never seen anything like that before.

"That, is a Night fury." Gobber chuckled at the reactions. "Finally caught tha' bugger." He hopped away from the lever and gripped the thing by the muzzle as if it were only a naughty puppy instead of a snarling, murderous beast.

"Now today's all about anatomy and weaknesses. Since we've never caught a Night fury before there's a lot ta learn and a lot ta get down." Gobber pulled the dragon out into the open ignoring it's violent thrashing.

Astrid swallowed. The thing was big. Not as big as a Nightmare but bigger than a gronkle and coated, head to claw, in sleek, shiny scales. She wanted to reach her hand out and stroke it, Just to see what they felt like.

"Well don't just stand there. Get ta work you lot." Gobber encouraged.

Fishlegs was on the thing in seconds, babbling excitedly about possible stats and how they'd be the first to document a Night fury. It snarled the second he laid a hand on it and lunged for him, choking by the chain when it pulled him up short of a few centimeters.

"I'm not going anywhere near that thing! It'll rip my head off!" Snotlout insisted taking a few steps back.

"You're not scared are you 'lout? It's only a dragon." Ruffnut teased, she elbowed him in the side.

"Aye, Quite 'tame one as well. Practically let 'imself be caught." Gobber insisted from the sidelines.

"You call that tame?" Snotlout retorted gesturing to the dragon. It was practically foaming at the mouth with rage and Astrid was sure she could feel the ground vibrating with every growl.

She took a deep breath, not willing to get a bad score just because a dragon had taken her interest.

"Fishlegs, do you think you can get me a couple of sketches?" She asked the boy. He had managed to scoot away a couple feet by the last time she saw him. He grinned, nodding. He quickly got up and ran to one of the arena sides where a book full of dragon sketches laid.

"Ruff, Tuff," she then addressed, "make some noise. Annoy it. See what it doesn't like and what it can tolerate." The twins grins became wider with mischief.

"And what am I doing my future Mrs 'Lout?" Snotlout smirked, a stupidly disgusting expression on his face.

Astrid groaned, "you Snotlout, um you," she paused for a moment, "you go grab a shield, Get it to shoot at you." She instructed watching Snotlout's expression fall.

"What?!" He squealed.

"Yeah." She shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world and not just a task she'd made up.

"Good idea Astrid!" Gobber chimed in, "Snotlout get it to shoot at you so we can find a shot limit!"

Snotlout grumbled to himself under his breath but still went to go grab a thick shield anyway.

"What are you going to do Astrid?" Fishlegs asked already starting to pencil an outline of the dragon.

"I'm going to watch to make sure everyone's safe and jump in if I need to." Astrid replied picking her Axe back up. She stepped to the side watching the Twins run back and forth banging their chosen weapons together, the metal made a loud clanging noise that was irritating to say the least. Not only was it annoying the Dragon half to death it was driving her pretty crazy as well.

Focus Astrid! Focus!

At a certain point, when Snotlout gave the signal, Gobber padded up to the raging beast and unfastened the leather strap holding it's jaw in place.

The boy screeched at the first blast. Then again at the second. By the third he had gotten used to being blown back, but by the forth he lost his balance and dove to the floor behind the heavy wood. The dragon shot two more times before it snarled in frustration, it looked around, trying for a new target; Fishlegs.

Astrid heard the charge before she saw it, reacting fast to the high pitched squeal at the back of the beast's throat.

It whined in pain when her Axe went slicing through the air and past its muzzle. She could see red staining the dirt below it when it screwed up it's body into a protective ball.

The weapon landed in the back wall and she went to fetch it while Gobber tied the dragon's mouth closed once again. A shallow but gushing cut on it's forehead clearly visible from where Astrid had hit it.

For a moment she almost felt bad. Watching Gobber drag it along and back into the dark hole in the wall. But then Fishlegs was coming up to her, a grateful expression on his face and a finished sketch in his hands.

"Welp," Gobber began, drawing the attention from the trainees, "I think that's it for today. I'll hand those notes in to Stoick if ya don't mind." He held his biological hand out for the drawings.

"Now off with ya, tha lot of ya. Lessons over."

"Great throw Astrid!" Snotlout complemented in a dreamy tone. 'Oh brother', she rolled her eyes. "The way you just managed to get it without killing it was just.. so you!"

Astrid huffed and glanced over to the exit. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were making a surprisingly silent escape.

"And where are you guys going in such a hurry?" She called out making them flinch.

"Oh hey, Astrid!" Tuff laughed, "we were just…. You know…"

Ruffnut Joined in, "yeah! Yeah! You know! Heading out and stuff!"

They grinned nervously.

Astrid folded her arms, "what are you hiding?" She smirked.

"Nothing!" They said simultaneously.

"Okay come on! Tell me!" She laughed jogging up to them. Fishlegs and Snotlout followed quickly behind her.

The twins glanced at each other.

"Okay, we'll tell you but you have to keep it a secret!" Tuffnut conditioned. Astrid nodded, egging them on a little.

"Alright well, there's this beach we go to sometimes," Ruffnut started off.

"Idea creation you know." Added her brother.

"Yeah! Well it's just past the forest and this morning while we were heading past it..."

"We noticed something totally strange!" Tuffnut's eyes sparkled.

"There's blood on the beach! The whole place is a cove. You have to climb down into it since there's cliffs surrounding it so we figured..."

"Something has to have fallen in!"

"It's gotta be dead by now with the amount of blood we saw so…"

"Wanna see a dead body?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Astrid squeaked a little louder than she would have liked when her foot slid out from underneath her. The cliff face the twins had had her climb down was crumbling and dangerous to say the least. Her hands were clammy with white dust from the rocks and at this point she regretted more than ever letting the two talk her into this.

It wasn't the fact that she had wanted to see whatever thing had crawled up and died here. Nor had it been the fact that, since dragon training had finished early, she would have been board for the remaining hours of the afternoon.

Mainly, she just wanted to keep an eye on the twins to make sure they didn't do anything stupid. It was pretty much inevitable, the word practically being their middle name by now, but the longer she could put it off the less work she would have to do alongside Stoick.

It wasn't that she didn't enjoy her Chiefs company it's just his personality tended to be cold and, as his name implies, Stoick. Her parents had told her something happened to him and Shieldmaiden Valka around the time she had been born but no one would tell her anything more than that. It hadn't crossed her mind for a very long time but she had theories of her own that had kept her up at night, however now wasn't the time to think about them.

Without another thought Astrid regained her footing and skillfully scaled the rest of the cliff.

Panting harder than she thought she should have been; Astrid stepped away from the edge to watch Fishlegs and Snotlout do their best to follow the route she had taken.

The second she had agreed to go with the twins, Snotlout had found a way to weasel his way into their little party, with Fishlegs tagging along behind, simply for the sake of not being left out. Before they had left, the larger boy had insisted on stopping off at his house to grab a bag of supplies. 'Just in case', as he had said.

As far as Astrid knew it was full of medical supplies and Snacks. After seeing, and climbing down, the cliff, she could understand his want to have it with him.

"To your right," Ruffnut yelled to Snotlout. He'd currently reached a standstill. Not enough foot holes for him to get down to the next level of stone. Well at least he was near the ground now, unlike Fishlegs who was still struggling halfway up the rock.

Astrid turned on her heel and padded up to Tuffnut. On his hands and knees, he was examining the remaining blood that hadn't been washed away by the tide. With a dramatic lick he lapped up some of the blood along with a fair helping of sand and sea water. Astrid made a disgusted face.

"Hmmm?" He hummed thoughtfully spitting out the mixture of saliva and sand. "Salty." He concluded helpfully.

Astrid rolled her eyes and got down onto one knee.

The blood was still wet, which was to be expected considering the damp sand underneath it. It was watered down and slid off her fingers easily only leaving a gentle pink wash across the tips.

"I think this is a day old." She stated, now more invested in where it had come from.

Her eyes followed the direction of the smears up the beach. It led a choppy but clear trail along the sand.

"It's leading this way." Astrid said, getting back up onto two legs, "come on let's get a head start." She grinned to Tuffnut. He nodded with a matching expression and together they began to follow the trail.

A few moments later, Astrid turned her head to watch as Ruffnut sprinted up to them with Snotlout following in tow.

"Where's Fishlegs?" She asked not slowing her pace to let them catch their breath.

"Still…. ha… on the cliff…." Snotlout panted. Astrid frowned.

"You left him?"

"No, no, no," Ruffnut chimed in, "he's got it…. nearly down."

Astrid opened her mouth to give them both a proper scolding when she walked square into Tuffnut.

"Why did you," She looked up to where he was facing, "stop?" Her voice trailed off into silence.

The trail had ended. No more blood to follow, it just disappeared with a final smear staining the sand. Ruffnut groaned, "aw come on! I thought this would be exciting."

"It can't have gone far?" Astrid stated, looking around for any sign of where the injured thing could have gone.

"Maybe a dragon made off with it?" She heard Snotlout say.

"No way, a dragon wouldn't anywhere near Berk unless it was during a raid which, you may notice, we didn't have last night." Ruffnut retorted.

"Yeah but no one on Berk lives this far out, a dragon would totally be-"

"What are we talking about dragons for?" Fishlegs finally joined them, his tone was confused and nervous.

"Guys shut up!" Astrid growled, "I'm trying to look for clues." Her eyes scanned the area for any sign of where it could have gone.

"Maybe it swam away." Tuffnut snorted.

"Or maybe it climbed up there." Fishlegs said timidly. Astrid turned to look at where he was pointing. It was a cave just a little ways up from the sand.

It was easy to miss with them being directly under it but after you spotted it, it was pretty obvious it was there. There was a stone ledge just underneath it that seemed sturdier than the rest of the rock had been. More lines of sediment made up its complexion than anywhere else.

Without a second thought Astrid gripped the nearest wall and began to climb.

"Woah! Astrid what are you doing?!" Fishlegs called in a panicked voice.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" She grunted hands gripping the new lined rock better than they had the chalky cliffs.

"It looks like you're running into something without thinking." Fishlegs whined.

"Yeah go Astrid!" Tuffnut yelled excitedly. "Adventure! Adventure!" He began chanting, Ruffnut quick to join in with her brother. They both rushed to the rock and began climbing.

Astrid hoisted herself up onto the ledge with her arms. Her skin scraped painfully against the rough surface but she would happily ignore it if it kept her falling from this height.

She panted hard and righted herself. The inside of the cave, from what she could see, was slightly jaggedy from being weathered away. Dark shadows cascaded down into it leaving an ominous glow where the light cut off in a line. She attempted to peer further into it as the twins finally made their way up to her. With a quick glance she could see Snotlout eagerly following after them swiftly followed by Fishlegs.

Astrid took a quiet step towards the inside of the cave.

"Fishlegs was right." She heard someone breath as they stepped over a small smear of blood she hadn't noticed previously. She shushed them quickly and took a faster pace. She wondered if the bleeding animal had died down here in the dark. Maybe it was a deer. That was the only thing she could think of that was big enough to match the size of the smears. She sniffed the air trying to detect any sort of decay; coughing when the stench of metallic rouge filled her nostrils making her want to gag.

Despite being a Viking she wasn't good with too much blood. A little was alright. She could fish and hunt with a rod or a bow but she would never be a butcher. It would just get too much for her in the end.

She quickly steeled her nerves, desperate not to let anyone see her at her weakest poi- She shot back in surprise as she stepped on something that squished under her shoe.

It squealed in surprise and scrambled backwards. With a look of surprised terror on her face she did the same, scampering backwards until she crashed into Ruffnut.

"What did you see?!" She demanded, not looking even slightly fazed that Astrid had just backed into her.

"I didn't see anything but I stepped on something. It's still alive whatever it is!"

"Cool!" Tuffnut exclaimed rushing forward to try and find it. Not even a second later he rushed back to them with a scared yell.

"Fishlegs!" He squealed clinging to the boy desperately, "I'm going to need your particular expertise at this current moment." Astrid noticed a bite mark on his arm, skin hadn't been torn but even still the prominent imprints of teeth burned into his skin.

"What's Fishface gonna do?!" Snotlout protested sounding rather offended.

"Yeah," Fishlegs agreed, "wha- hey!" He finally caught onto the nickname, "what am I going to do?!" He asked timidly.

Tuffnut took a breath.

"It's a dragon."

"What?"

"A dragon. You know," Tuffnut stretched out his arms to mimic wings, "roar! Fire and scales and all that."

"Are you sure?" Astrid butted in, watching as Tuffnut nodded a confirmation.

"Positive!" He promised.

"What would a dragon be doing down here?" Fishlegs muttered.

"Anyway," Tuffnut said, pushing Fishlegs to the front of the group, "You know the most about dragons so go up there and Identify it."

"But I…" Fishlegs protested.

"No way! Don't let Fishlegs go!" Snotlout protested once more, "If he dies we have to go back and explain to everyone what happened."

"Snotlout's right," Astrid agreed.

"I am?" He blinked in surprise, "I mean, yeah! Yeah I am!"

Astrid rolled her eyes, "it's better to go all at once so that we can overwhelm it if it attacks one of us."

The rest of the group nodded, dragon training instincts kicking in as they all found a place in a line to call their own.

"Okay," Astrid started, "on my signal we all walk forward in formation. Everyone keep an eye out for this Dragon. Ready," she raised a hand, "go!"

The group began to pad forward through the dark cavern.

Astrid heard a whimper over their footsteps and the sound of shuffling getting louder and louder with every step.

"That," Stuttered Fishlegs, "That doesn't sound like a dragon."

She swallowed softly listening out for anything more, that could give her a clue as to what type of dragon it was. Nothing. Just the scratching of talons against the stone floor and a sharp petrified whine. For a moment she felt bad, it was probably terrified. Hurt, bleeding with a bunch of humans creeping towards it. That would frighten her to if she was in that position.

The closer they got to the ending wall of the cave, the more shapes became visible. A small lump of black pressed itself into the right angle between the floor and the back wall.

It shivered trying to hold a scaly webbed form against itself protectively. One of them hung limply against its side, as if it had been disconnected and mutilated beyond being able to control it.

Astrid froze immediately recognising what it was.

"Fishlegs…" she whispered. The boy nodded in reply.

"That's a Night fury."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Hiccup squealed as something prodded him harshly in the gut. He scrambled away without even looking at what it was; skidding along the rocky floor while his injuries screamed at him for moving so fast. He hit the back wall and his hind leg collapsed underneath him; bones creaking in displeasure.

His heart rate was through the roof with the knowledge that he couldn't defend himself like this! He didn't even have the energy to shoot! He'd spent a shivering night alone praying that his strength would return enough to make a hot bed for himself but it hadn't and now he was under attack by something that wanted to squish him!

Hiccup whimpered and wrapped his one working wing around his body as best he could. It wasn't much but it might offer some protection for his eyes and nose.

He heard slapping stomps coming towards him at a fast pace and curled in on himself harder. Begging internally, he repeated a mantra of go away! in his head, hoping the creature was psychic and knew what he wanted.

A limb brushed against his side unexpectedly and he reacted on instinct.

He hadn't time, as he lashed out, to unsheathe his teeth all the way but they dug into the soft, sour flesh easily enough. It, whatever it was, gave a yelp of fright and took off back down the cave. Leaving the Nightscale with a mouthful of a unique taste that had a thankful lack of metallic undertone.

Hiccup trembled in fright. Oh no! What had he done! That yelp was loud and dragon or not he knew that it had been a cry for help. A call for reinforcements! He'd be surrounded soon and all because he couldn't control his own mouth!

He whined in defeat and waited for death; softly curling around himself; using his wing and tail to make himself look as small as possible. He tucked his useless Wing over his body and pretended for a moment that it was instead Toothless's large wing covering and protecting him from that creature/s.

It was in this position that they had found him. Hiccup curled around himself harder, trying to make himself less of a threat. It wasn't exactly hard, him being the wuss that he was, but if the effort gave him a better chance of being spared then he would take it.

Something brushed along his side in the same place he had been touched before and he fought the screaming instinct to bite. Instead he flinched away from it, letting out a sharp yelp when he put pressure on his back leg again. It collapsed under his weight making him look pathetic and weak.

The thing took their limb away slowly and it was only then that Hiccup chanced a glance at whatever it was.

There were five of them; Humans, he meant; All of them different sizes and shapes.

The largest in the back seemed to be the least willing to come near him and Hiccup was thankful of that. They were hiding behind what Hiccup presumed to be clutch mates. Their identical presence making it clear to him that they had come from the same female if not from the same egg. Next to them was a grubby looking human who smelt of fire and something sour.

Hiccup made a sneezing sound trying to get the scent away from him. He didn't like it! It smelt of the outside nest where Toothless had been taken away from him.

The one that was closest, he presumed they had also touched him, was gentle and displayed a loose relaxed look of calm. He liked this human the most. It reminded him of the females of the nest. Soft and comforting; warm.

They reached out to touch him again and he let them, briefly showing off his teeth for a warning. Get too close to something I don't like and you'll have an enemy.

The human didn't seem to notice and placed their paw to Hiccup's scales.

The large one in the back moaned out a high tone. Most likely one of warning but the soft human didn't pay any attention. They moaned out a low tone themselves. It was flat and soft, one to provide calm comfort.

Hiccup watched as they trailed their paw up along his body from his right flank. Every now and again they would prod his scales searching for… something. Hiccup swallowed wishing he knew what they wanted.

They came to his wing base and right before they could prod into the painful joint he growled out a warning. They pulled away sharply and made a low noise.

The large human and the foul smelling one replied in surprised tones. They argued for a little bit and soon the clutch mates joined in.

While he was distracted the soft human prodded into his wing base with their paw.

Hiccup yelped and snarled, twisting around to grip their wrist in his gummed maw.

The foul smelling human tried to rush forward with what looked like a shiney, sharp stick but the soft human held him at bay with a human growl. The foul smelling one dropped the shiney stick and one of the clutch mates kicked it over to the other side of the cave. Hiccup heard its sonorous chime when it struck the rock.

Hiccup could see now that this soft human was the Alpha of the pack. He whined submissively.

You don't bite an Alpha!

Hiccup flattened his ears to his head and gently let go of their wrist. He flicked his tongue out to give it an apology lick. Maybe the Alpha would see that it was only a mistake and forgive him.

The soft human Alpha made a long string of noises. They craned their neck around to look at his left flank, the one with the wounds. He'd revealed it when whipping around to bite their paw. Some more noises of what seemed to be an explanation, or maybe an instruction?

Hiccup couldn't tell. The humans didn't emote enough for him to know. Their facial expressions didn't seem the same as dragon expressions. He didn't know if, when he read happy, that meant angry or sad. For all he knew they were planning to kill him right under his nose. This thought scared him.

As silently as he could he tried to crawl away; ever so slowly, paw after paw barely making a sound.

The soft Alpha was distracted, speaking to the rest of the pack. He might be able to get around them if he was fast enough. But his leg hurt and sprinting took a lot of energy out of him. Plus even if he could get to the end of the cave and into the open air his right wing wouldn't move besides the occasional twitch. It was dislocated and painful. The joint would probably swell up soon and become even more painful. If only he could get it back in!

The soft Alpha placed their paw onto his tail, just above his tail fins and pulled gently. It didn't hurt but Hiccup still found that he squeaked in surprise.

They gently shuffled forward towards him. Coming closer and closer while Hiccup watched them. He'd roll over as submissively as he could; as it was he had twisted his head around to display his neck. A signal that said, please don't hurt me!

Soft cooing noises came from their mouth as they moved their paw a little faster now, running their long, claw like digits along his spine. He couldn't deny that it felt good, especially when they pressed against the point between his wing bases. It relieved the pressure from his hurt wing and allowed him temporary relief.

The Nightscale shuddered. Allowing himself to momentarily push up into the Soft Alphas clever paws. He'd felt healing magic of all kinds but this he'd never experienced. A small whine of pleasure escaped him and before he knew it the soft Alpha's sweet paws had found the pressure point under his chin turning whatever thoughts in his mind to mush.

Without thinking he let himself Mark the soft Alpha's arms with his scent. Running his scales up and down their soft underbelly like coating where their scales should have been.

All fight had been melted out of him in a matter of seconds, replaced by purrs of submissive cooing.

So enchanted was he, by these magical paws, that he didn't see the soft Alpha signal to their pack mates. Harder, much more intentive paws wrapped themselves around his body faster than he could move to stop them.

The foul smelling one gripped his muzzle and held it closed while the rest of the pack each grabbed a paw or a wing.

Their paws were damp with nervousness and the one on his muzzle slid a little at first when Hiccup struggled to pull his jaw out of their grasp.

They made a whining noise to the soft Alpha who was busy with one of the hatch mates pinning his back half down to the stone. They signaled to the large one.

Still nervous to come near him, the human hesitated, hopping from foot to foot gently in place. They tried to protest but the Soft Alpha snapped sharply.

Hiccup tried to yelp. To call out for help as they came closer and closer to his damaged wing.

The soft Alpha spoke to them. Their tone was broken with panting as they exchanged a piece of what sounded like encouragement.

Hiccups eyes widened at the large human grasped his hurting wing in one paw and braced themselves against him with the other. He struggled harder. Trying to whip his body this way and that to get away.

He had no idea what was going on but they seemed intent on keeping him still through the process. A sharp whine escaped past the foul smelling human's paws as the group pinned him completely now.

The soft Alpha barked out a command and without warning the larger human pushed Hiccup's wing back into the socket.

The Nightscale let out a scream as it clicked back into place, burning as it did so. He must have blacked out for a moment. Only coming back when the human's collective grip had loosened slightly and the Soft Alpha resumed trailing their paw along his spine where it felt the best.

Hiccup panted, ears pinned to the back of his skull. He flexed his wing gently and winced. It pulsated with pain but he was relieved and a little confused to find he could move it now. There had been no healing magic involved. At least none Hiccup had ever come across. Then again, humans weren't dragons. Maybe their medicine was different to the medicine he knew?

The soft Alpha began to call off the rest of their pack. First loosening their own grip before calling away the clutch mates, then the large human and finally the foul smelling one still holding his muzzle closed. They protested for a second before finally obeying.

Hiccup whined when they let go. The noise made them flinch and scamper back a little faster.

The soft Alpha coped at him softly. They made a hissing noise and Hiccup recoiled. Why were they mad at him? He hadn't done anything wrong. The soft Alpha flinched and changed its noises back to its gentle cooing.

They knew now that Hiccup didn't like the hissing; had he not been so exhausted from the pain, Hiccup would have been impressed that it had been intelligent to learn.

As it was he whined.

Too tired to shrug away the gentle paw that petted him oh so sweetly.

…..

Astrid took a breath. Her hands trailed the pristine patterns covering the Night Fury's back between its scales.

"You still think this is a good idea?" Ruffnut whispered to her.

Astrid struggled not to shake her head. She wasn't sure about this. Not anymore.

The plan had been simple:

-Get in close

-fix it up

-Carry it back to the Village and pretend they had brought down the mighty beast themselves!

Lots of praise lots of glory! Etcetera, etcetera…

But that was the thing. It wasn't mighty at all!

The thing was tiny once you got up close to it. Not much bigger than a fawn and it had a personality as sweet as honey. He, and she'd begun to truly think of it as a he, was so trusting. So willing to let her touch him without much convincing. Who knew dragons had a puddle spot just like Cats and dogs.

She'd gone through phase one and gotten Fishlegs to fix its dislocated wing. But now she was in a bind. Should they really turn it in now? It trusted them! Something that had never happened before.

"I don't know…" Astrid replied. The dragon let out a gentle purr, it vibrated through her fingers as she pressed between its wings.

He wasn't cold like she thought he would be. Warm blood flowed through his veins, heating up her palm as she petted him.

"I'm not sure I want to hand him in like this."

Snotlout fumed at this, "but we went through all this trouble!" He whined.

"Yeah but it was bleeding when we found it!" Tuffnut argued, "it wouldn't feel right to claim we did that."

"Er yeah it would!" Snotlout continued, "you're telling me you don't want all the praise? All the admiration? You don't want everyone cheering your name?" Astrid rolled her eyes. Snotlout began mock chanting his own name, pretending to be a mass of admirers to further stretch his point.

"Alright." She said loudly getting their attention, "let's put it to a vote. All those in favour of sticking to the original plan raise your hand."

Snotlout determinedly put his hand up.

"And all those in favour of… Not sticking to the original plan?"

The twins raised their hand and slowly Astrid joined them.

"Fishlegs…?" She questioned.

The boy hopped in place nervously. All eyes focused on him making him feel worse. "I…" he stuttered, "I… don't know okay?... I really don't know… I don't want to hurt it!…. We shouldn't have messed with it in the first place…. But.. um… I mean… this it cool right? We get to study the first Night fury ever to make peaceful contact with a viking!" He grinned ear to ear looking to the dragon.

Astrid sighed. She glanced at Snotlout. "We'll keep him here for now. Help keep him alive and then when he's a little better we'll make a final decision…"

The dragon in question seemed to have fallen asleep under her gentle hand. The pain had obviously been too much for him and Astrid wondered to herself how such a tiny thing had been able to survive all that. Maybe he was stronger than he looked.

She smiled. Maybe, just for now, while they agreed to keep him safe, they should give him a name?


	6. Chapter 6

Hiccup watched with dreary eyes as the Soft Alpha struck strange smelling stones together. He'd only been conscious for a few moments but he remembered everything exceedingly quickly.

He remembered the humans finding him and using some kind of strange humany magic to fix his wing. He also remembered how the soft Alpha had patted him with their paws until he passed out from exhaustion.

Every now and again the collision between the rocks would spark a quick ember and go out again causing the Alpha to growl in annoyance.

The Nightscale drew a breath, inhaling the scent of musty, sea cave and slightly charred rock. He stretched, letting his wings press out as far as they could go and squeaked when his right wing joint twinged in pain. He folded the webbing once again and shook away the dust on his scales.

Glancing to the joint he curled his body around and lapped at it softly with his tongue. It had swollen a little and he wouldn't be able to fly with it for probably another week but it was better than being stranded.

The soft Alpha spared him a cautious glance and they made eye contact for a few moments. They seemed to realise the submission he radiated for them and turned back to their stones once they were reassured he wouldn't try anything.

Just below their busy paws was a pile of sticks. Just like the ones at the outside nest and arranged in the same way. Hiccup tilted his head to the side.

If humans made these stick piles for fire then what was the use of the rocks? Rocks didn't make fire! Dragons made fire!

Keeping his Belly to the stone and his eyes on the alpha, Hiccup crawled along the floor to the other side of the stick pile.

He glanced to the cave exit and swiveled an ear to the outside world where he could hear waves crashing against the sand and the shreeks of birds hiding in the nesty burrows they carved in the rock to protect their hatchlings. Hiccups tail wagged a little when he remembered the day Toothless taught him how to be crafty and steal the eggs before the bird omegas returned to protect their young. It was fun to crawl over the cliffs, sniffing out good eggs from bad eggs. The day ended when a Gravelgut nearly had his eye ripped from its socket by a very angry parent.

Toothless had laughed it off at the time saying he would act the same way if someone had tried to steal him away.

A small whine of sadness escaped Hiccup's throat.

Toothless.

Where was Toothless?!

The soft alpha made a questioning hum. It brought Hiccup away from that train of thought.

By now he had begun to associate these noises with how humans spoke in general but the alphas tone was one slightly higher than the rest of the human pack.

Hiccup wondered if they were a male or a female? Did it really matter? Did humans even have males or females? Or did their society work with only secondary genders like Alphas and Omegas?

Hiccup thought they looked like a female. They certainly smelt like it and seemed to take more pride in how they groomed themselves, especially when compared to the foul smelling human.

Hiccup wrinkled his nose. It wasn't like male dragons didn't groom themselves as thoroughly as females did, they just didn't have as much time to do it in.

It was very common for male dragons to display themselves as Alphas. Alphas were the hunters of the nest; the 'battle-ready' of the pack. They didn't spend a lot of time taking care of themselves because they were too busy out hunting or on territory patrol.

Toothless was an Alpha. Though Toothless hadn't been out to patrol in a very long time; the queen excused him from Alpha duty's in order to take care of Hiccup. To raise him. And it was very much expected that Hiccup would display as an Alpha as well but he, himself, wasn't so sure.

To become an alpha you had to prove yourself worthy and that meant fighting. A skill in which Hiccup wasn't that well trained.

Nests were split into lots of smaller groups called packs.

In order to determine secondary gender, fledglings (when they felt ready) would battle one another until someone submitted or an Omega stepped in to break up the fight. The victorious dragon would be considered an Alpha until they lost a fight. If that happened they would be treated as a low level Alpha.

Once you became a low level Alpha you had to take orders from someone with a better status that yourself; that usually meant an Alpha who had never lost a fight, or any kind of Omega, though most Alpha's obeyed any command an Omega gave them anyway.

Hiccup felt that he himself might do better as an Omega. They were the 'care-givers' of the nest. The ones who stored the food, protected and raised the hatchlings and kept the peace between quarrelling dragons.

If you wanted to eat, you didn't anger an Omega.

Omegas were typically female though, just the same as you could find female Alphas, you could also find male Omegas if you looked hard enough.

As far as the queen's nest was concerned it didn't matter if you were an Alpha or an Omega to mate. If you were attracted to one another then so be it. A bond between mates lasted a lifetime in most cases and it would be a foolish decision to mate with one you didn't feel totally attracted to. Though Hiccup had heard tales, from older dragons, of nests where mating bonds were forced onto dragon's of the same status in order to keep the strong, strong and to make sure there wouldn't be a lack of Alphas or Omegas around.

Hiccup was appalled by the idea but also knew that the concept wasn't too far from what could have been his reality. Nightscales were, and are, a dying species.

Toothless was his parent and when he really thinks about it he's very glad he was hatched a male instead of a female. Should it have been different, the queen would have ordered them to mate. To have hatchlings so as to continue the species with.

A strong breed of dragon such as them are desired by many and owned by so few.

But back to the humans, or rather human.

The soft Alpha huffed and threw the rocks down in anger. They made a clattering noise against the rock and sparked one last time before going out. Hiccup tilted his head, looking at them curiously. What was so special about them? Why did the smell to strange?

With a final glance to the Alpha, he began to crawl towards them; slowly and carefully as if he was stalking prey. When he got close enough he stretched a paw out and batted them gently with a claw. They fell away from each other, rolling on the curve until they became unbalanced enough to collapse on their own.

Now a little more confident that they wouldn't harm him, Hiccup wiggled his way a little closer to them.

He stuck his nose out and gave them a sniff.

They smelt like… well… nothing Hiccup had ever smelt before. They smelt of smoke and char and other things burnt. He sneezed out a chuff of distaste, unamused by their uselessness.

The human alpha made a noise to him. When he glanced over he noticed she had an odd expression on her face. The corners of her mouth had turned up slightly though she displayed no teeth to make it a snarl. She wasn't asking him to back away from her rocks but the longer he looked at her expression the more he pondered whether or not he should back away from them anyway.

He sat up still keeping eye contact with her and tried not to wince when his back leg throbbed. He tilted his head slightly before slowly trying to copy her. It felt weird to have to unlock, usually, unused muscles across his jaw but the end result wasn't too far from what the alpha had done. He made sure to sheith his teeth so as not to spark a fight. (Ultimately one he knew he would lose).

She looked astonished. Eyes widening in first, panic and then wonder. Hiccup pinned his ears back and whined. Maybe that wasn't a good idea. He backed away from her a little and curled up against the floor in submission.

She raised a paw quickly and held it out in front of her. She cooed gently in that dull voice of hers and curled her mouth once again. Her tone reminded him of a tone toothless used to use whenever he felt bad about doing something wrong. He came to a sudden realisation that the way she acted was similar to that of a parent's. Was she?... Did she think he was a hatchling? And in extent, her hatching? Her pack's hatchling?!

It all made sense now! The fixing of his wing; the gentle cooing, and the way she had patted him softly to try and relax him.

The soft Alpha considered 'him' to be the hatchling of the pack. Someone to protect and raise! Did they not realise he wasn't a human? We're they really that stupid? It made no sense!

His ears pricked once again at her gentle voice. It was obvious to him now that she didn't want to frighten him. She was trying to connect to him in the way many Alphas find difficult to connect with a hatchling, (more specifically their hatchling). It wasn't her intention to growl or to threaten. She cooed one last time and lowered her paw slowly.

Hiccup curved his ear to the entrance of the cave without turning his head. He could hear the rest of the humans clambering their way up the wall with their stubby, pail, digits. In a way they were almost like claws. Just more squishy and agile.

It was one of the nest mates that scrambled their way to the ledge first. Hiccup could tell by how their paws smacked, painfully, against the rock instead of rolling carefully and gently.

The large one, instead, rolled their paws and while the foul smelling human did the same - That human wheezed each breath in and out like it was a challenge.

Hiccup chanced a glance to the edge in time to see one of the nest mates take a pouch from the large human just below. They pushed it to one side before helping him up. Hiccup blinked, watching with fascination, when they twisted their paws together for grip. That was clever and not stupid at all! Why couldn't a species so developed when it came to invention be so stupid to the point where they couldn't tell the difference between a human and a dragon?!

Hiccup chuffed in suppressed aggression when the foul smelling human appeared next. It gripped at the rock with their paws and scrambled for balance with their back legs.

A cruel side of him began to chant evilly in the back of his mind - "fall! fall! fall!".

He shook his head and padded towards the struggling thing, taking pity on it when it choked out a whine. If the humans had accepted him into their pack he should probably show that he was willing to be active. There was nothing worse than being a burden.

The nest mate and the large human stiffened, mid-tug, when he slithered closer to them. He eyed them cautiously before glancing to the foul smelling human.

Hiccup sighed and pinned his ears to the back of his head. Curse his good nature!

He shuffled closer to the human, dangling dangerously over the edge, and shuddered. It really did reek!

'Of acid and sweat' he thought.

Hiccup sneezed in disgust before taking a deep breath.

To be fair, the way, in which, he snapped at the humans scruff was probably more menacing than he had intended it to be. But the action was then amplified out of proportion when it started shrieking in terror. The dreadful noise startled the other two into backing off suddenly in fright.

Hiccup rolled his eyes and pulled with as much force as he could. He strained his muscles when the human limply lost its grip on the ledge.

It had frozen in fear and once it was finally over it lay limply against the rock - twitching it's limbs and letting it's tongue flop out of it's disgusting maw. Hiccup growled a little in annoyance and backed off. It was playing dead… What a drama queen…

The dragon himself whimpered as he tried to stand up straight. His back leg twinged suddenly, making the slash marks on his flank scream out for attention once again.

Hiccup didn't have to see it to know the strain of pulling the human up had torn what little healing his body had done. He was, once again, bleeding. A little pool of scarlet began to drip a contrast against the grey, speckled, stone.

He whimpered softly and began to limp his way towards the back of the cave. The back was safe and nothing could snatch him up from there. (A fact he had, unfortunately, learned from an experience with a very hungry hawk... Soon to be flame grilled hawk when Toothless caught up to them.)

The soft Alpha met him halfway. They saw the blood and pushed out their jaw pathetically. Making a sympathetic whine, they pushed themselves over to him and scratched behind his ears softly. It was almost like grooming.

Toothless tended to groom him whenever he had brushed with death. It happened a little too often for his liking but sure enough every time something happened, Toothless showed up. He carried him by the scruff back to the nest and sat for hours upon hours, grooming him until his scales itched.

Hiccup knew it was a protection thing. Toothless was scared to loose his charge. The only other of the same species. It was fair enough but incredibly embarrassing! Especially now that he had grown up.

With the attention the soft alpha gave him, Hiccup ultimately lost the battle against her sweet touches and relaxed into a puddle of purrs. She chortled a little as he rolled over and gestured to the large human to come over.

He scrambled a little, in his excitement, to obtain the forgotten pouch. Cast aside for the time being by the nest mate. He quickly retrieved it and swung it over his shoulder before making his way over.

Hiccup squeaked as the soft Alpha slipped her paws to his sensitive underbelly. He growled at her lightly as a warning…

A warning of which she ignored.

Without missing a beat she pulled him up onto her hind legs and pinned him in place. His underbelly was upwards facing the large hunan. Hiccup didn't like that! Nope! He had to cover it! Cover it now!

He wiggled around until the soft Alpha got fed up with trying to keep him in one place. Without Moving away from her legs; Hiccup twisted his body so that he was on his front once again. The bleeding flank faced outwards to the large human.

The alpha didn't seem to mind the quick shuffle and simply held her paws away until he got comfortable. From there she picked her grooming back up.

Hiccup purred softly. He would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the attention, even if it was a bit babyish. The pack had probably made the assumption that he was a hatchling based on his size. Hiccup knew he was small. It was just one of his characteristics. And though many dragons would consider it a curse, Hiccup found that being the size he was came with some advantages.

For example. Bee's tended to nest in some of the nook's of the Queen's island. If he went in slow enough, he was the only one able to crawl into the crevice and retrieve a part of the comb before being detected. This led to many an occasion where himself and Toothless had shared a sweet treat. If any other dragon tried, their size would give them away and they would be swarmed by hundreds of angry, stinging soldiers. Bee's tended to go for the eyes and nose, and an injured eye meant a possibility to lose an Alpha title. No Alpha was willing to do something with such a high risk rate. But Hiccup was.

He chuckled out a purr whenever he thought about it.

Hiccup sighed softly and glanced to the large human. They plunged their paws into the pouch and he could hear the sounds of things clicking together as he rummaged. The large human mumbled as he did so, making soft tones of confusion as he searched. Until suddenly, with a chirp of delight, he quickly pulled out a curly role of what seemed to be a stretchy plant.

Hiccup sniffed it from afar and watched as the large Human began to unfold it gently with his paws. It had been dried at one point in its life cycle and its fibers had been combined with other similar plants to make it the long and durable.

Hiccup flinched when the soft Alpha took his hind leg into her paw and stretched it out. He yelped sharply, this time making the large human jump. His whimpered and whines did nothing to deter her from holding his leg in place. She used her other paw to hold the front part of his body down.

The large human quickly got to work wrapping the strange dried plant around the bleeding gashes torn into Hiccups thigh. He mumbled while he worked and through the pain Hiccup made the link between their knowledge about human medicine and the dragon Omega's back at the nest.

The large human was the Omega of the pack, which was most likely why the Alpha had protected him from the more feisty members of their group. Omegas were needed for medicine, magic and calculations and we're invaluable members of any nest.

As mentioned previously, Omegas stored the food and protected the hatchlings. In order to do their job correctly they had to be calculated in their decisions. Not only since dragons are hard enough to keep track off when they listen to instructions but also because many (if not all) would throw a hissy fit if one got a larger helping of food.

Omegas had to be able to count. A rare quality in dragons since it required someone to think on their decisions before acting on then. They had to count how many hatchlings we're in their charge and again with how many helpings of fish each dragon was allowed access to.

If their calculations were wrong it could very well mean a missing hatchling and the, so called "balance", within the nest would fall apart.

The large Omega used a strange piece of shiney rock to slice the end of the stretchy leaf and neatly tucked it secure behind a few other wrappings. Hiccup whined and gently curled his leg back-up to a semi comfortable position the second the Alpha let him go.

She curled her mouth again and began to groom him once more.

Hiccup glanced at the material now curled neatly around his thigh and made a note of how he wasn't bleeding anymore. Curling his body around, he stuck his tongue out to taste the strange covering. It was kind of acid like but not completely unpleasant.

The Alpha clicked with a sharp tone and flicked his ear gently when Hiccup went to bite it. He made a sharp protesting whine but didn't try to mess with it again.

Instead he began to watch the large Omega and their external pouch.

Dragons had pouches. They were large and stretchy and resided just before the stomach so that if food was short they didn't have to digest it straight away.

It was typically only Omegas who used their pouches on a regular basis, but it was common place for any kind for parent to store a few fish for their charge. Toothless did the same thing for while when Hiccup was growing up. The pouches were coated with some kind of lining that made food easier to digest for hatchlings, while also preserving it for a little while should any dragon wish to save a meal.

Hiccup could smell what was in the pouch way before it was revealed to him and it made his stomach ache with want. The Omega pulled out a fish. Charred and covered it a leaf wrapping, but a fish all the same. Hiccup's maw began to salivate uncontrollably from the idea of eating once again. He didn't remember when his last meal was but it had definitely been a while. He quickly tried to hide his eagerness and pressed his nose into the Soft Alphas middle causing her to wheeze out a breath.

After a brief moment of coughing she chortled and gently tried to pry his head away from her side. Hiccup whined softly until he saw the Omega holding out a small tearing. They were doing that jaw curling thing and hummed enticingly while they held out a small tearing from the tail.

Hiccup could see how they were trembling. Maybe it was from fear or adrenaline but either way he didn't care right now. The Omega flinched when he shot forward to grab the tearing but quickly relaxed again after noting every one of his claw like digits was still unharmed and in place.

Hiccup hadn't even unsheathed his teeth to grab the meger piece and quickly gulped it down without even taking the time to savour it. It just felt so good to finally not have to worry about food.

The Omega chortled out a nervous laugh before peeling back the rest of the material. They placed it onto the cave floor and Hiccup raced to swallow it down. It felt so good to finally eat a decent meal.

It was strange to char the fish before eating but Hiccup wasn't complaining. Being around fire breathing lizards his whole life came with some dangers. If some kind for a fight broke out around food then, sure, it was bound to get burnt up a little; there was no point in going out to hunt again if it was still edible.

Hiccup panted softly when nothing but a few stray scales remained. He purred in satisfaction and licked his chops smugly. Maybe, if acting like a baby got him this kind of treatment, he could continue to play this role?

If the humans were really so dumb as to think he was their own hatchling, who was he to tell them otherwise?

Hiccup stretched and listened to some of the bones in his spine crack. The alpha chortled and pawed circles between his shoulder blades. They seemed Satisfied with what he had eaten and happily listened to the Omega as it began to babble away excitedly.

Hiccup sighed contently. Yeah this was bliss!

He made a plan, going through each step in his head until it became seamless.

He would stay with the humans. Play the part of their little hatchling until he healed fully. He'd let them pamper him until he found where they came from originally. At that point he would go out to search for Toothless.

Now that he had a fuller stomach he was able to think a little clearer. The idea that Toothless was dead seemed completely foreign and unrealistic. His parent had always been a fighter and there was no way he would give up now that they were separated. So…

If Toothless wouldn't give up, neither would he!

(Man that took a long time. Sorry for that, but it's a long chapter so hopefully that makes up for it. See ya next time, :3)


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Back to Berk

As much as being crushed under, (what must have been around) 100 pounds of dragon, sucked… Astrid couldn't find it in her heart to move the scaly beast that had taken a liking to curling up on her chest.

The little night fury had been cautious at first. Inching his way toward her and skittering backwards when something spooked him. (Usually the twins; Astrid rolled her eyes). But she had been patient and quiet and supportive of every move he made until finally he was able to snuggle up to her.

After a little while of purring and, pressing snout against squishy, sinews, he managed to up his courage enough to place a paw ever so lightly upon her thigh. Off and on, off and on, he did it many times until he pressed enough to lift away from the stone floor. Up onto her legs still taking, timid glances with those big, bright eyes.

They were green, she noted.

Not a colour she had been expecting but still nice. It wasn't an ugly, mucky, green, like muddy grass or a medicine she'd drank once when sick as a child.

No, it was a nice green, like moss.

Quite pretty really.

Her legs were skinny and obviously not that nice to clamber over so she'd found herself laying back so he could inch up. It was more comfortable this way anyway; heavy dragon and nothing to lean on were two factors that didn't mix. He'd curled up on her stomach; then pressed out his hind legs and uncurled his wings to cover them both from the sun. His injured one seemed to be healing at a fairly steady pace.

When relaxed and asleep, he measured about three quarters the length of her body and, if you added his wingspan, spread about a full length (plus a bit more) sideways.

When you accounted all of this it was surprising how light he was. It made Astrid wonder whether he was underweight or if he was just young?

He was obviously a baby. Much smaller than the Night Fury in the ring with much larger eyes and a rounder face. The only thing he seemed to be missing was baby fat. But maybe that was just down to not being fed properly? Ironic that with the sheer amount of food being stolen, they couldn't seem to find the resources to feed one little dragon.

Fishlegs had made a comment the day before about dragons having Hollow bones and very little muscle mass where it wasn't needed. This made for a lightweight body in dragons that were built for speed.

She guessed, for a Night Fury, that little fact did make sense but it still worried her. Under certain lights she swore she could see his ribs and had made a mental note to bring a fishing rode down to the cove so that they could fish for some fresh food instead of stealing from the storage baskets. If they kept that up they were bound to be found out soon. Fish baskets didn't just disappear but fishing rods broke everyday. A missing one wouldn't be too much of a discrepancy.

It would probably cause an argument over who broke it but Astrid could deal with that herself. She was the heir to Berk after all. Speaking of which…

Trudging through the Forest to get back to the Village was a chore. Thankfully the more they came the less they had to bring with them.

They had cooking items; pans, pots, kettles and alike, all stored away near the back of the alcove. Away from the rains where they could rust. Blankets too. Though they had learnt to keep the flammable material away from where the dragon liked to lay. Fishlegs had tried to get him to lie down, (once, early on) on top of a worn pillow. It was lumpy from age and kind of uncomfortable but he had still figured that the creature would appreciate something to lie on while he slept. A few minutes later it became apparent that Night Fury's liked to sleep on top of a large circle of hot coals… At least he enjoyed rolling about in the ashes.

Astrid snorted at the memory and stepped over a log. The route in which they took to get to the cove was heavily covered with overgrown brambles, nettles and undesirable shrubbery. There was no decipherable path. But that was good. It made them hard to follow.

Astrid held in a surprised squeak when her foot got caught on a second, more hidden branch. She hadn't been looking where she was going and nearly tripped because of it. She should be better than that. They'd been coming to the cove for about a week now, she should know the route! Or well… routes.

The group had started to mix up where they entered the forest so that no one from Berk would be able to follow them. As it was the path was heavily covered over by vicious vines and brambles. It wasn't pleasant to wade your way through them but the harder it was to follow the less likely it was that they were found out.

If the cove stayed a secret then so did the dragon.

Speaking of which…

"I still think "Snart" will be a most regal name for a dragon." Tuffnut insisted.

"We're not naming the dragon "Snart"!" Fishlegs huffed, "that's not even a good name for a human!"

"Yeah bro! What were you thinking?! The only real name you should give a dragon is "Death-claw the destroyer of worlds!"" Ruffnut suggested while Astrid rolled her eyes.

"It's a dragon!" Snotlout squealed from the back, "It doesn't need a name." Astrid sighed and glanced to the back of the line. At first she had been cautious of him coming with them.

His attitude towards the situation had just screamed reluctance, but as the days went by and he didn't say anything to alert the rest of the island, it had become clear to her that Snotlout was just scared.

Not of the dragon per say, though he was fairly scared of him also. No, Snotlout wasn't scared of the creature in the cove; Snoutlout was scared of his dad.

It hadn't made sense to Astrid at first.

They'd butted heads enough over the years to the point where she'd thought that Snotlout himself would be grown enough to not care what his father thought; but then she'd started watching.

She watched how Snotlout would avoid going home or eating meals with his father and everything became clear…The guy was stubborn and abusive. Snotlout had learned that sometimes (all the time) it was just easier to avoid confrontation. If he did that he wouldn't get hurt.

She'd been a lot more gentle around him after that particular realisation.

A guy with a manipulative father such as Spitelout didn't need more people being mean to him. Especially if his behaviour was mimicked and not intentional. She couldn't hate him anymore and that was that.

"Actually I think it would be a good idea to call him something," Astrid spoke up, "but not a name. Just something we can refer to that people won't get suspicious of if we have to talk about it in Berk."

Fishlegs seemed inspired by the idea, "that's such a good idea! Maybe we should call it, er, I mean him, an average word. Like, um… maybe 'The', or 'This'?"

Astrid thought over it. "That's not a bad idea but I don't want him getting confused when we say his name in a casual sen-"

"Astrid." Snotlout cut her off. His face had gone suddenly pale with shock.

"wha…?" She turned quickly as the rest of the groups expressions began to mimic Snotlout's.

At first she couldn't see it but her nose twitched with the smell of charred wood and she felt her gut twist with anxiety. Peeling back a low hanging branch her fears were confirmed. Through the rancid scents, sights and sounds attacking her senses she made one conclusion.

Dragon raid.

It had happened while they were away. In pure daylight!

They padded into the village cringing as their boots sunk into piles of fallen ash.

As soon as they were spotted a few of the town's people stopped to address Astrid, knowing her to be the heir to Berk. They asked her and the group about where they were and why they hadn't been putting out fires. She didn't have an answer for them.

The damage was extensive. And while some houses had escaped with only a few surface burns others had had their roofs collapse from the blaze. It was all she could do to start helping people pull apart the black, powdery lumber in hopes of finding some of the missing. There had only been one case of anyone being carried off by dragon as far as Astrid knew, and though no one had ever told her who it had been, the fear of that happening again was in the back of her mind at times like these.

The little Night Fury had brought down protective walls regarding Astrid's opinion of dragon's but this freak event had brought them up again.

Reinforced them with steel and other metals she had only seen during times of intense war.

She would not let anyone be carried off under her watch!

Astrid switched roles a few times, going from helping pull apart the wreckage to directing others on where their help was most needed. She hated having to direct and put on her "chiefing" face, as the Twins called it. It distanced herself from her human side during times of disaster. This was her fault! If they had been there to put out the fires she could have saved so much damaged from ever being done.

Her Stoick face would never show it but all she wanted to do was go home and cry.

Speaking of which….

"Where were you?" The Chief's voice boomed as he took large strides towards her. At this point Astrid's face was streaked with black char and he hands were hardly recognizable under all the black.

"I… er Chief I…" she stuttered, wheezing a little from working so hard.

"No!" He interrupted, "where were you and the rest of the firefighter gang?! We needed you Astrid where were you?!" The chief demanded an answer. His face was screwed up and bright red from rage and working so hard to fix her mistake.

"I…" Astrid struggled for an excuse. Somehow she figured, 'we were hanging out in a secret cave with our secret dragon' wasn't going to cut it. She swallowed despite the dryness in her throat and pushed her knees to make her stand. "I was… nowhere… sir… just, in the Forest."

The Chief's face skewed into an unreadable expression of disappointment and anger. Astrid's stomach flipped in guilt.

"Astrid." He said softly, voice trembling as he tried to keep himself from exploding. "You are the heir to Berk. The future Chief. It is your job and your responsibility to take care of these people. Your people! You cannot be goofing off like the twins because I rely on you!" He huffed while Astrid hung her head in guilt.

"You have to be here looking after your people! Directing them!" He continued, "why when I was your age I took my duties seriously! I never we-"

"You and I remember your childhood very differently Stoick." The Chief was cut off abruptly by a softer more feminine voice.

The chief sighed, "Valka…" she appeared from behind his large form. Much smaller and more petite but with toned muscles curving her hips and arms. Astrid had been told that years ago her hair had once come to below her knees but now it was chopped. Cut close to the skull with sharp blades making her seem every bit of the warrior she had come to be respected as. A shield maiden was what everyone called her but she was so much more. A Valkyrie was more appropriate. Every bit of the hero her name implied and every bit the hero Astrid wanted to be!

Quickly, Astrid straightened her posture trying to look as presentable as she could with her char stained clothes and unkempt hair.

"Love, I'm in the middle of something he-" the chief tried only to be shut down again.

"If I remember correctly Stoick," Valka began loudly, "Goofing off and going on adventures was your speciality, especially when it came to impressing me." She smirked and the chief sighed.

"But she's the heir to Berk in a time of war." He argued.

"And you are CURRENTLY the leader of Berk so I suggest that you leave her be!" Valka soat back instantaneously, "there is no rule against her having a childhood, heir to Berk or no."

The chief opened his mouth one last time as if to argue before sighing. "Yes love." He backed off to instruct a smaller group of workers, tail between his legs under the shadow of his wife.

Valka sighed softly.

She lifted a hand to her face and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Her eyes drew to Astrid and softened when she saw the girl stiffen.

Astrid swallowed nervously.

"You should get cleaned up." Valka smiled. "And if Stoick gives you anymore trouble you come tell me direct. He can treat you like an adult all you like but your a teenager first."

"Er… y...yes ma'am!" Astrid stuttered a little.

Valka grinned and gave her a happy wink. "Go wash your hands and go get something to eat, you've worked hard enough." She patted the girls shoulder before heading over to one of the more damaged houses to help.

Astrid breathed out a sigh of relief. Her hero saved her from getting into trouble. She still felt guilty but less so now.

She stared at her black stained hands and tried to pick the char out from underneath her fingernails distractedly as she thought of what to do next.

She wanted to continue helping the dragon but after this event she wasn't sure if she should. Maybe this attack happened because the dragon's were looking for their baby?

She jumped when a hand was laid on her shoulder.

"Are you okay Astrid?" Fishlegs asked with caution. She looked up to find the twins and Snotlout standing nervously behind him. Like her the twins were covered in charcoal and Ash. Their family house had burned down so they had been spending the time digging out their belongings from the remains. She sighed as she looked at them.

"We need to start being more careful." She started making a final decision. "If we leave to go to the cove three of us go and two of us stay. Someone needs to be here to make sure this never happens again." She said determinedly startling Fishlegs slightly.

"And whatever happens." She continued, "keeping Secret safe is our first priority."

Her shoulders squared she turned on her heal and headed at a fast pace towards the great Hall only staying long enough to her Tuffnut whine. "Of come on; why does she get to name the dragon?!"


	8. Chapter 8

The soft Alpha didn't return for a while after she had left.

The large omega and the nest mates returned as did the foul smelling human but the soft Alpha hadn't joined them.

Hiccup began to worry.

As nice as the large Omega was and as bearable as the nest mates could be, he simply didn't feel as helpful to this rowdy pack of humans without their Alpha. It strained his relationship with the other members of the pack even more so than what it already was. Of course it didn't' help that they were still as wary of him as he was of them. Sometimes it felt like they were just constantly tip toeing around each other.

But on a more positive note, Hiccup's leg was healing nicely thanks to the strange human-y medicine. He could even walk around now without having to stop because it hurt too much. Running was still a bit of a challenge but in a few more days he should be fine so long as he didn't push it.

Yesterday he had even climbed down from the cave to investigate the beach. It was full of new and exciting things he hadn't been in the right mindset to enjoy his first night.

He was right about the nesting gulls. Now near to the end of their nesting season where everything was a little calmer since the Gull hatchlings were beginning to leave their parents. Dragons didn't tend to leave their guardians until much later on in life. In fact it was common for young to stay within their guardian's care until they were granted their status within the nest. That could take as little or as long as a lifetime for some dragons.

Hiccup was Fifteen winters old, still young but he'd been expected to declare his status within the nest a very long time ago. 4 to 11

winters tended to be the average time a typical dragon in the Queen's nest would declare their status within.

Thankfully Nightscales weren't the average dragon and so Hiccup was granted leeway many other dragons wouldn't have been permitted.

Nightscale's could live for decades under the right circumstances and so the queen had supposed it was alright for Hiccup to take his time deciding.

Toothless had seen eighteen winters in his lifetime. Only three cycles older than Hiccup himself but then again Toothless had declared his status exceedingly early even for the keenest of dragons.

Toothless shouldn't have been a parent so early, he wasn't even at nesting maturity when Hiccup had been charged to him, but the queen's wishes were to be taken heed of.

Hiccup knew he'd been abandoned as a hatchling; Toothless had told him so. His real parents had either died or simply forgotten him for being the runt of the litter. It wasn't an uncommon thing for dragons. The strong were strong and there was no room for anything else. But as much as it hurt every now and again; to realise that his real guardians hadn't wanted him; Hiccup had Toothless and that's all he really needed.

Logically being abandoned wasn't a bad decision. He was hatched outside of the normal season after all - it meant his real parents were probably stressed and unable to find a safe place to nest. Maybe they had to leave him to save themselves or something? That wasn't so bad, Hiccup supposed, his life to save two others.

Even so; as logical as it was to figure that he had been cast aside for the survival of his parents - the absence of the soft Alpha had forced contemplating thoughts such as these into his mind once more.

Hiccup didn't want to be left behind by anyone else. Ever!

That's why it bothered him so much that Toothless had been captured. It was his fault! And he was just sitting here, doing nothing, while his guardian is out there in some kind of horrible situation, suffering at the paws of those who had trapped him! Hiccup knew that Toothless wouldnever just leave him like that so it only seemed right that he should do the same.

But what of the human pack when he finally found his guardian?

He would have to leave them, obviously. He'd have to go back to the nest - to his queen. But they had been so nice to him; letting him stay within their pack.

Healed him and looked after him. It felt rude - if nothing else - to know that the second he got what he wanted he would just leave.

Maybe if he spoke human he would be able to explain his situation. Would they even help him? It was humans who had separated him from Toothless after all.

Would they go behind the back of their own species to help him find his guardian? No, probably not. It didn't seem plausible.

Hiccup had been drilled since he was young, that a dragon should do anything for the good of the nest.

Obey any command the Queen gives you and make sure you don't step out of the confined space your status permitted you. Omega's stay within the nest and Alpha's patrolled the outside, looking for threats.

Hiccup wasn't very good at following the rules but his status as one of the last Nightscales allowed him to slip between the cracks a little more than something more common like a Gravelgut would be able to.

The Queen seemed to be rather fond of him as well, which helped his case a little more.

She even offered to tutor him when he expressed an interest in magic; though that was only should he choose to become an Omega. It was something she seemed overly keen on in fact.

She was never pushy with her requests but there was still something about the way her words wormed their way into Hiccup's head that put him on edge a little. It was as if he couldn't say no to her - no matter what he actually wanted to say.

He wondered what that was all about? What was the Queen doing that caused him to be so placated around her?

Hiccup shook his head as if he was trying to brush away the thoughts like annoying flies.

Questions like these would just keep circulating forever if Hiccup let them. They had no defined answer and would never be answered. They had no purpose other than to quench Hiccup's own curiosity.

Annoying at best and a major hindrance at worst.

For now he would just have to wait and see if the soft Alpha would come back. Maybe she just got caught up at her own nest? Alpha patrols did take up a lot of spare time. Maybe she just had to wait a little while before coming back?

 _to be continued..._

 _..._

Okay so a super short chapter this time.

Don't worry though, it's only because there's some pretty serious stuff in chapter 9 and I didn't want to leave you guys for too long without anything new to read.

Still, hope you enjoyed some context as to what Hiccup knows about his own past.

What, you didn't really think Toothless told Hiccup he was his dad did you? ;]


	9. Chapter 9

A disgustingly embarrassing noise choked it's way from Astrid's throat as she lost what little she had forced down just hours before. The tree she was leaning against for support scratched her palms and left stinging white lines covering her skin. That didn't matter right now though, she was just too disgusted to care!

She could still hear the deafening roar of the crowd as they cheered for her victory. Though the second she wouldn't be missed she had made a quick dive for the woods; only able to run for a few minutes before the nausea became too much to bare.

She had been chosen. She would get to kill her first dragon in front of the whole Village.

It was her dream but it didn't feel like a victory anymore. Not after getting to know Secret.

She'd spent the whole test thinking that this would be it; someone like Snotlout would be chosen and that would be that.

She certainly wasn't expecting the Gothi to nod in satisfaction when Gobber gestured over to her.

Though maybe she should have.

Astrid was always thinking one step ahead, and after that step was taken, three more steps ahead of that.

But Secret had thrown off her whole groove. He'd crashed his way into her life and caused a complete mess! All the while giving her puppy eyes and a cutesy, floppy tongue as he did his best impression of a toothless smile. It was tooth-rottingly sweet and made her heart feel gummy as it beat in her chest.

Right now as she thought about it, her stomach heaving, she regretted even following the twins to the cove in the first place. Maybe if she hadn't been so stupidly trusting she would never have met Secret. She would never have learnt about dragons; would never have questioned herself; would never have dragged the rest of the teens into this mess with her! And, for gods' sake, if she had never met Secret she wouldn't be here, hunched over behind a tree, regurgitating her breakfast as if she had swallowed poison.

But the worst part of it all, by far, was how she had begun to recognise the little signs. The change in frequency each time a dragon whined or growled that would mean something slightly different.

'Dragonese', Fishlegs had called it, as if that made it any better.

They were so expressive when someone knew what to look for, it's just Vikings had never focused on one long enough to understand them. But being around Secret allowed her to understand. She could now recognise an "I'm scared" whimper from an "I want cuddles" whimper and it made her grit her teeth in guilt.

The Gronkle she had fought today had been terrified. It had screeched out cries of "I'm scared, I'm scared," over and over again while she charged it. Axe polished and gripped tightly to her palm. Every opportunity she had to let it slip away from her, she took, but by the end of the fight Gobber had hooked his 'hand' 'round her gums and tossed her to the back of the open cell. Little chips in her scales had started bleeding by then which only added fuel to the nausea pooling into the depths of Astrid's gut, like a rancid waterfall of sticky black tar.

Astrid retched once more. Her feet slid out from underneath her but an arm suddenly wrapping its way around her waist caught her last second. She whimpered both from the pressure on her stomach and the embarrassment of being caught in such a weak moment. Please let it be Fishlegs! She pleaded internally, or my parents or even one of the twins would work, just please don't let it be the chief.

The arm pulled her back and away from the tree. "Easy there, Astrid." A gentle voice came from behind her. Oh no! Oh Thor no!

Astrid changed her mind, the chief would be one thousand times better than this!

She wanted to start retching again! A whole new wave of nausea overcoming her senses as she slowly turned her head towards the voice.

Valka stood in all of her valiant glory. A large bundle of sticks, cut and wrapped into a cylinder for transport, slung around one shoulder. Kindling, probably for the dragon torches. "Easy there." She repeated with a concerned expression.

Astrid watched as the woman she admired let go of the sticks to hold her up properly. She wrapped one arm around her shoulders and used the other to direct them both over towards another tree just a little ways away.

Astrid stayed silent the whole time, only gently whimpering when Valka set the both of them down near the roots. The older woman fished a water skin from where it was securely hooked onto her belt and undid the clasp.

"Here," she said softly handing it to Astrid who gratefully gulped down a mouthful. Her teeth felt overly sensitive where the liquid grazed them, washing away the sweet aftertaste of vomit from her pallet. Astrid felt she could nearly cry when her throat stopped stinging. She raised the skin to her lips once more before dealing with the Valka problem.

The older woman was sat patiently across from her. Legs folded neatly and that same concerned expression coating her face.

"Thank you." Astrid sniffed, handing the skin back to her. Valka shook her head and pushed the thing into Astrid's chest.

"Drink some more, it'll make you feel better." She instructed firmly. Her tone made it clear that this wasn't a suggestion. Astrid nodded and cautiously sipped a little more from the skin.

The sounds of forest made themselves known while a tense silence collapsed over the two. Bird song picked up once more and, if she listened hard enough, Astrid was sure she would be able to name each type of bird from how they sang.

Once it became obvious that Astrid wasn't going to keel over anytime soon Valka finally took the water skin back and cautiously helped the younger to her feet.

"There now," Valka stated, slinging one arm around Astrid's shoulder, "let's get you back to your parents now, shall we?"

Astrid flinched a little, "No! Wait!" She yelped.

This was humiliating enough as it is already! She couldn't face her parents right now!

They'd make that 'I told you so' face and say, 'maybe it wasn't such a good idea to be a Shield Maiden anyway'. Astrid's parents couldn't see her like this!

"Astrid…" Valka started; her tone suggested she was about to argue with the girl; but seeing her pleadingly panicked face caused her to hold her tongue. "You don't want to go home?".

Astrid shook her head stubbornly, "my parents can't see me like this!" She insisted. Valka sighed and nodded, making a knowing face, "alright then.".

Valka kept her arm around Astrid's shoulders as she picked the abandoned bundle of kindling, up from where it lay. "How about you come to the chief's hut with me and I'll make you some warm Yaks milk to settle your stomach?"

Astrid swallowed, it was humiliating to be babied like this by her Idol, someone who didn't need anyone to baby her, but if it meant another hour without having to explain to her parents why she ran off, then so be it. Astrid nodded softly and let herself lean into Valka's directing arm.

True to her word, the older woman made a direct route towards the chief's hut and even made an effort to avoid bumping into whatever Hooligan happened to cross their path. Astrid was grateful that Valka had been able to pick up on her embarrassment and was even more grateful when the older woman didn't even stop to drop off her cargo before opening the door to the hut.

"Here Astrid," she cooed softly, helping her down onto a well crafted, wooden chair. It had the chief's emblem carved onto the back in a darker wood to the rest of the item; it made Astrid feel inferior to be sitting on it. She didn't deserve to sit here! Just by keeping Secret a... well… secret, she was a traitor to her tribe. A whole new wave of sudden nausea washed over her as she thought about it.

"Whoa! Easy there!" Valka snapped a little in panic as Astrid's face paled. She forced her to sit up against the chrest rail, "Breath Astrid, take deep breaths."

Astrid swallowed and let her eyebrows furrow in embarrassment, why couldn't she have been left to deal with this on her own in the woods?!

"You alright now?" Valka asked uncertain as to whether or not she should let go of the younger girls shoulder. Astrid took a deep breath and nodded with certainty.

"Thank you." Astrid said softly as Valka moved her hand away. Despite being embarrassed she realised that the shield maiden was only trying to be kind to her and to not thank her for trying to help would be rude. "I don't know what's wrong with me." She lied.

Valka raised an eyebrow slightly, she obviously picked up on the way Astrid's fingers twitched to mess with a loose strand of hair, mischievously peaking it's way out of her neat braid; something she only did when lying or nervous.

Valka sighed softly and turned towards a gentle cooking fire centred in the middle of the hut.

After taking a few sticks from the large kindling bundle the fire began to pick back up to its proper glory. Heat began to seep out into the rest of the hut while the smoke took an opposite direction and crawled its way out through the chimeny. Astrid let go of a breath she hadn't known she was holding; quietly enjoying the peace and security a controlled fire had.

Dragon fire was scorching and chaotic, it came with destruction, death and a sharp acidic smell. It blew up houses, burnt off limbs, and roasted prey alive. For years Astrid had been afraid of any kind of fire that crossed her path. Anything from a tiny match to a large bonfire sent her barrelling, head first, into the safety of her mothers arms. But as she had grown so had her knowledge and her ability to fight the fear.

Like this, fire was safe. Yes, it was chaotic and scary but when treated with respect and authority it could be tamed and used for many useful things. Gobbet wouldn't even have a job if fire wasn't used like that. They couldn't cook their meat or warm their houses, they couldn't light up the village past dark without fire…

Astrid bit her lip as her eyes darted back to the bundle of kindling; they wouldn't be able to fight dragons without fire either.

"There now." Valka said softly, a tired sigh caught in her tone. She sloshed a good two cups of Yaks milk into a pan and hung it on a hook above the coals to warm. "Just a few more minutes now."

She pressed her palms to her knees and pushed herself up to her proper height. Leaving the pan unattended, Valka gently took a seat at the table, opposite Astrid and nearest the fire.

"How about during this time you tell me what's really going on, hmm?" She held her palms out in a placating gesture. Astrid stiffened.

"Nothing's going on, I'm just sick or something." She tried to shrug away the question.

"Astrid," Valka frowned a little, "I'm not going to judge you for anything you say here. It's good to talk about things, gets them off your chest. Who knows maybe I can even give you advice?" Astrid nearly snorted sarcastically.

Yeah, advice on how to kill a dragon when your keeping one as a pet. She thought.

Astrid pressed her mouth into a line. "I… um…" Valka leaned forward in her chair encouragingly.

"It's just… I have this friend…" she started.

"A friend?" Valka confirmed.

"Yeah and um… he spends a lot of time around dragons, watching them and stuff and," she brought her hands up to tug awkwardly at her braid, "and he's made me think about killing dragons and… if it's the best thing to do… strategically… I mean… can't we try and find peace or something." She cautiously looked up to Valka.

The older woman had a strange expression on her face. She seemed to think for a moment before getting out of her chair. She pulled two wooden carved mugs from a cupboard before heading over to the boiling Yaks milk. Astrid felt her heart quicken as Valka filled both cups in silence.

"Here." She finally said, passing a steaming mug across the table before seating herself once more.

"Astrid, I'm going to tell you something I haven't spoken about to anyone for a very long time." Astrid nodded awkwardly. She gripped the wooden mug in her right palm, glad to have something to focus on so she wouldn't have to look her idol in the eye.

Valka lent back in her chair a little more and took a short breath, "okay, where to begin…" she took a sip from the mug in thought, "has anyone ever told you that the chief and I once had a son?"

Astrid flinched a little at the sentence. This is not where she thought this was going. "A son?" She spluttered.

Valka nodded. "A son. Wee little thing. Born in the winter months, Gothi didn't think he'd last the week but he survived and pepped up towards the end of the month." Her mouth curved up into a smile, "Stoick would stay up every night because he was so scared he would stop breathing if he wasn't there to watch him. He would have made a good father."

"What happened?" Astrid asked as she watched Valka's smile falter.

Two words. "Dragon raid."


	10. Chapter 10

"Stop please! You'll only make it worse!"

The previously pinned Nightmare slithered its way from the distracted Viking's grip and launched itself back into the Frey without so much as a scratch.

The Viking in question let out a grunt of frustration before fixing 'the distraction' with a tight glare. She flinched visibly at the look but did nothing more. No apology even so much as graced her lips.

Rage bubbled under the surface at the loss of a kill. A nightmare no less, something to get him some respect in the coming weeks, maybe even a free meal or two, but she just had to come up behind him with her stupid ideals spilling from her mouth like always.

Gritting his teeth he growled out a huff and roughly shoved her to one side. Anything more than that and he would be hearing from the chief himself and that was the last thing he needed right now.

Valka balled her nimble fingers into a fist. She looked down and away from any eye contact that could spark something rougher than the light shove she had just received. As it was the underbreath hiss of "useless" made her stomach turn, but thankfully not with guilt.

She knew she was hated all over Berk. And after years of harsh words, hidden behind backs, it barely fazed her.

The 'hysterical woman' who wanted to befriend the dragons. How silly. How insane. How could the chief possibly put up with her? Well he put up with her just fine, thank you!

Stoick loved her and she loved him, it was just that she felt what dragons really were and he had yet to find out.

The rest of Berk had yet to find out.

Technically there was no evidence to support her claim. By the book, Dragons were murderous beasts; only wishing for 3 things, killing, stealing, and arson. But evidence for one thing will be found when you only look for one thing. No one had ever looked for anything else. Until now that is.

A loud cry of "Fire in the chiefs house!" startled her from her thoughts. The fire brigade just steps were just steps in front of her as they tried their best to make it up the hill fast enough. Her face felt cold with how fast it drained of blood.

The chiefs house. Her house. The same house that held her baby.

The fire brigade was slower on the steep ground and weighed down by the buckets of water they had clutched in each hand. They wouldn't make it in time to put out the fire before the support beams had been burnt all the way through.

Valka was faster and more adept to getting up the uneven land and before her mind could catch up with the action she had already made it up the hill and surpassed the door frame.

"I'm here! I'm here!" She shot straight for where she knew the cradle was, smoke clogging her senses and making her eyes water, "My baby! I'm here-". She coughed dramatically, lifting her arms to shield her mouth and nose against the heat of the flames, arms raised to her mouth and nose protectively. Though it was what she saw next and not the smoke that drew the air from her chest.

A dragon.

A breed she had never seen before. One she was almost certain didn't have an entry in the book yet.

It had a wide, flat face and a scale pattern similar to that of the forest floor. It held one claw tipped wing over the cradle, being ever so gentle as her baby giggled and wrapped his stubby little fingers around the tip. Valka could hear the deep rumble of a satisfied purr as the dragon preened to the lack of terror in her baby's gaze. And while most mothers probably would have stuck a sword through the beast's shoulder blades already, Valka, instead, felt her whole body relax. It was as if she instinctively knew this dragon would do nothing to hurt her child.

The spell was broken the second her lungs demanded her attention. She coughed into her arm in an attempt to muffle the sound but she had already outed herself. Her baby began to cry as the beast spun on its centre of gravity and she could see a shallow scratch on his chin where the dragon's claw had accidentally caught him.

She was reminded of how this beast easily had the capability to end her in one smooth motion.

It cocked its head to one side curiously. Eyes wide and not a note of a growl within its throat. For a brief moment Valka could compare it to an owl, wise beyond its years and with an understanding of humans Valka was sure many other dragons would struggle with. She didn't dare take so much as half a step back as it came right up close to her face. It's gentle breath tingling her nose like a light breeze. And she felt the tension within her shoulders relax.

They stood like this for what must have been only seconds, but to them it felt like an hour. For time slows significantly for those whose souls mirror each other. That was all it took however. The beasts brow turned angry at the sound of a shrill shriek.

Valka remembered this part with excruciating detail.

The roof of the house caved horribly and from the rafters a Zipple back burst through. Twin heads screaming with seething hate and panic.

Neither Valka or her dragon could react fast enough and the twin headed beast snappled up her baby by its jaw and flung itself out towards the sky - satisfied with its stolen prize.

Valka felt her heart stop and her dragon cried in anguish. Blood was in her ears just soft enough for her to hear Stoick; though what he said was washed away in the adrenaline.

She felt a hand on her arm pulling her from the flames. Her dragon disappeared from her sight before she could comprehend it; as did the flames.

The raid flew off into the distance having caught all they could before the sun peaked from its resting point beyond the horizon.

Berk was left in their wake. Burnt and collapsing but alive still.

Valka knelt by her extinguished home. So empty of both her belongings and her baby. Stoick had come by and sat beside her at one point. Placed a blanket over her shoulders and tried to speak to her. He had to be pulled away by force in the end. The sun had risen and Berk needed its chief. It didn't matter that Valka needed her husband. This event had changed things permanently and she knew their relationship would never be the same.

He placed something between her palms before he left. Kissing her brow with all the care and adoration he had kept for her since the day they wed and stood to continue his work.

Valka's eyes flicked her her hands and gently squished the small toy she found sleeping within her lap. It was charred and blackened by the soot but it was still whole. She nearly burst out laughing.

The thing was ridiculous. It was dumpy and was unevenly stitched and stuffed. It was meant to be a nadder but she had made too many legs, and then this odd rounding nose at the front. And these round fabric wings that looked nothing like any dragon she had ever seen.

She couldn't sew. Never had been able to as a girl and probably never would. But she wanted to make something for her baby. Like her mother had for each of her children before she passed. Her own toy had been destroyed in a fire but she had hoped this one would survive for the sake of her own child. Well at least she got her wish.

Her face broke out into a grimace as she gritted her teeth against tears.

She hugged the stupid thing to her chest and laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

 _to be continued..._


End file.
